I was mildly distressed to read that the renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital neurosurgeon, Dr. Benjamin Carson, is considering a post-retirement career in politics ("Ben Carson says he will retire, hints at politics," March 17). I fully understand his desire to retire from what must be a physically, mentally and emotionally demanding profession. Nonetheless, consider how much good he has done and could continue to do if he decided to pursue a direction that enables him to pass on his skills and to advise on medical matters.

You got it / What it takes / Go get it / Where you want it / Come get it / Get involved / 'Cause the brothers in the street / Are willing to work it out -- "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" PUBLIC ENEMY / / Performs 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rams Head Live, 20 Market Place, Power Plant Live / / 410-244-1131

My friends and I grew up in the shadow of the women's rights movement and the sexual revolution. When I came of age, birth control pills and abortion were legal and people my age believed women should have the same opportunities as men. So how strange it is to hear my old college friends talk about raising their daughters. These men and women, now in their 50s, take a critical eye to the boys who come calling at their door. They worry about their girls listening to provocative songs and wearing revealing clothes.

The production of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters currently running at Center Stage is smashing on every level. The acting? Inspired. The sets? Top-notch. Costumes and lighting? Couldn't be better. And the directing, by Irene Lewis? "THE THREE SISTERS" / / Through Oct. 29 / / Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St. / / 410-332-0033 or centerstage.org

It is not too much of a stretch to say that the world might not know Gilbert and Sullivan today had it not been for The Sorcerer, the first full-length operetta they created together. It's also not much of a stretch to say that an awful lot of people don't know a note or a line of The Sorcerer. And that's a pity. THE SORCERER -- 3 p.m. today and July 16, and 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday -- Bryn Mawr School, 109 W. Melrose Ave. // Tickets $35 -- 410-323-3077 or yvtc.org.

FOR MEL BROOKS, IT WAS ANYTHING Goes. For director Robert Longbottom it was No, No Nanette. For songwriter Stephen Schwartz it was the short-lived Shinbone Alley. And for me, it was Carnival. For many children, musicals aren't merely entertainment, they're the embodiment of a yearning that can last -- and shape -- a lifetime. Even now, these theater artists get a wistful tone in their voices when they recall those early, eye-popping experiences. CARNIVAL / / Through March 11 / / Kennedy Center / / 800-444-1324 or kennedy-center.

Swirls of color, limpid washes of pigment that jump out and envelop the viewer, eye-popping stripes that seem to march across the canvas to a syncopated, ragtime beat. For a brief, shining moment in the 1960s, Washington stood with New York on the cutting edge of contemporary American painting. Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Gene Davis and a handful of others who collectively came to be known as the Washington Color School not only launched the first modern art movement created in the nation's capital, but won the kind of enthusiastic critical acclaim previously reserved for artists in the Big Apple.

The Walters Art Museum might not be the largest research laboratory in the world. Nor is it the most prestigious, since its curatorial staff includes exactly zero Nobel Prize-winning scientists. But surely no other facility in which a pioneering neurological hypothesis is currently being tested can boast such elaborate wall decor. Museum director Gary Vikan says that a gallery is the perfect setting for "Beauty and the Brain," which opened this weekend and which is equal parts art exhibit and science experiment.

That face is unmistakable: The grave eyes. The long brown hair that covers his head almost as if in benediction. The beard that curls downward around his mouth, giving him a mournful air. Even without the halo, he is instantly recognizable. And he is so ubiquitous that we think we recognize him even if we don't belong to the faith to which he gave his name. Who else could it be but Jesus Christ? LECTURE / / Gary Vikan will discuss The Face of Christ / / 12:15 p.m. Friday / / Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St. / / Regular admission applies.

The Walters Art Museum might not be the largest research laboratory in the world. Nor is it the most prestigious, since its curatorial staff includes exactly zero Nobel Prize-winning scientists. But surely no other facility in which a pioneering neurological hypothesis is currently being tested can boast such elaborate wall decor. Museum director Gary Vikan says that a gallery is the perfect setting for "Beauty and the Brain," which opened this weekend and which is equal parts art exhibit and science experiment.

With its new production of "Around the World in 80 Days," Center Stage is launching on an odyssey as daring and fraught with peril as the one undertaken by Jules Verne's fictitious explorer, Phileas Fogg. For the first time in the venue's 46-year history, the organization is trying to capture that most maddeningly elusive of creatures - young theatergoers. And the troupe is scooping them up one Mud Pie Mojo ice cream cup at a time. "Never before in recent memory has Center Stage marketed a show to families and children," says David Henderson, the troupe's communications director.

By Edward Gunts and Edward Gunts,ed.gunts@baltsun.com | November 1, 2009

William Donald Schaefer spent a lifetime cultivating his reputation as a "man of the people." That's just how sculptor Rodney Carroll depicts him in the Inner Harbor sculpture that will be unveiled at 1 p.m. Monday to mark Schaefer's 88th birthday. After meeting with Baltimore's Public Art Commission and others, the sculptor chose not to position Schaefer high on a pedestal or striking a heroic pose between the two pavilions of Harborplace, as had once been suggested. Instead, he set Schaefer's figure on two low marble slabs on the Inner Harbor's west shore, where it's more part of the crowd.

As co-host of the TLC series "What Not to Wear," Stacy London has a national reputation for defining fashion trends, and helping people develop their own personal style. The 40-year-old style expert regularly appears on NBC's "Today" show and is a contributing editor for People magazine. Last weekend, she traveled to Baltimore to host Believe in Tomorrow Children's Foundation's Benefit and Auction. London often talks about others' style choices. But what about her own? At the benefit, she wore a black Shoshanna dress, copper metallic Lanvin pumps and an Alexis Bittar pewter resin bangle bracelet and oyster resin earrings.

Starting Saturday, a miniature Quran no larger than your thumb will be on display at the Walters Art Museum. Page after page of the 17th-century text from Turkey is filled with words that look as though they were scrawled by fleas. Each of the original's 114 "suras" or chapters is faithfully reproduced in its entirety. Talk about reading the fine print. "How can little things possess so much power?" the Walters' Ben Tilghman wonders. "As long as there has been writing, there have been miniature manuscripts.

By Michael Sragow and Michael Sragow,michael.sragow@baltsun.com | July 12, 2009

A samurai's wife dazzles a bandit as she and her husband make their way through a deep wood. The brigand rapes her. Someone kills the samurai. (Maybe it was himself.) That's all we know for sure about the action in Rashomon, even after the director, Akira Kurosawa, stages it from four different perspectives. No director has matched his ability to develop a story by leaps and bounds while revealing irresolvable discrepancies. Is the bandit a bold combatant and ladies' man or a feral pig?

I was mildly distressed to read that the renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital neurosurgeon, Dr. Benjamin Carson, is considering a post-retirement career in politics ("Ben Carson says he will retire, hints at politics," March 17). I fully understand his desire to retire from what must be a physically, mentally and emotionally demanding profession. Nonetheless, consider how much good he has done and could continue to do if he decided to pursue a direction that enables him to pass on his skills and to advise on medical matters.

My friends and I grew up in the shadow of the women's rights movement and the sexual revolution. When I came of age, birth control pills and abortion were legal and people my age believed women should have the same opportunities as men. So how strange it is to hear my old college friends talk about raising their daughters. These men and women, now in their 50s, take a critical eye to the boys who come calling at their door. They worry about their girls listening to provocative songs and wearing revealing clothes.

No, I haven't stopped thinking about Baltimore's opera future. And, thanks to some others in the area similarly focused, I've got a lot more to think about. Last week, Giorgio Lalov and Jenny Kelly announced the debut season of their Baltimore Opera Theatre at the Hippodrome - Rossini's The Barber of Seville in November and Verdi's Rigoletto in March. This will not be the all-local company Lalov and Kelly initially announced. These inaugural presentations, using an orchestra and chorus from Europe augmented with area musicians, suggest a version of the couple's longtime touring company, Teatro Lirico d'Europa.